Fischler Report: Bettman weighs in on NHL's next CBA

Gary Bettman says he is “looking forward to meetings with
the Players’ Association.” The goal, says the
commish, “is to reach a Collective Bargaining Agreement that
can take the game and the business to even higher levels than have
been reached over the past seven seasons.”

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman speaks to
the media prior to the start of the Stanley Cup finals. (Getty
Images)

“The union is now prepared to begin talks and we’re
in the process of trying to set up dates.”

The following are CBA points addressed by Bettman:

* NEGATIVE PRESS SPECULATION:

“I don’t understand both the speculation and the
degree of negativity that it connotes considering we, meaning the
League and the Players’ Association, have yet to have a
substantive discussion on what we may each be looking for in
Collective Bargaining.”

* WHY SOME MEDIA TYPES BELIEVE A WORK STOPPAGE IS
INEVITABLE:

“If somebody is suggesting it, it’s either because
there’s something in the water, people still have the NBA and
the NFL on the brain, or they’re just looking for news on a
slow day. It is nothing more than speculation at this point.
There can’t be any substance to it because there
haven’t been any substantive conversations.”

* A SHORTER CBA:

“We had originally agreed, coming out of the work
stoppage, this would be a six-year deal.

The Players Association at the time was concerned about how they
would like the system. So we agreed if they wanted to shorten
it to four years, they could. We also agreed that if they
liked the system, they could extend it a year.”

“There are probably a host of things, from a day-to-day
standpoint at least, that both we and the Players’
Association need to focus on. Seven years is a long time for a deal
to be in place. During that time we’ve seen the game
grow.

We’ve seen incredible competitive balance. We’ve
seen revenues set records each year. But that doesn’t
mean that there aren’t going to be adjustments that each of
us want to look at.

I don’t think it was ever contemplated that the agreement
would ever be more than seven years.”

* BOB GOODENOW vs. DONALD FEHR:

“If you go back in history, one of the reasons we wound up
where we did, we had told the Executive Director (Goodenow), at
least four years in advance, the systematic problems that had
become obvious to us at the time, and we were struggling mightily
for a long period of time.

At that point the Union was aware of it and chose to do nothing
about it. We’re in a completely different situation.

There’s a new Executive Director who has gotten himself up
to speed, new people, new relationships.

Time will tell how this all sorts out. I’m hopeful
that it sorts out easily because labor peace is preferable to the
alternative.”

BERGER PERCEIVES
SOME CBA OPTIMISM

While pessimists believe that an NHL-NHLPA war is inevitable
next September, an occasional optimist emerges from the mist with a
saner view.

One such media type is our pal, Howard Berger, who has been
touring with the Cup Final
round. â€‹His blog, Berger
Bytes, has become one of the most reliable and rational of our
daily puck commentaries.

After watching Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr in action at The
Rock in Newark, Berger offers the following missive of
hope:

As commissioner Gary Bettman pointed out on Wednesday night, it
isn’t plausible to characterize the climate between the
National Hockey League and the NHL Players Association before
actual talks begin on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

But, neither does it appear reasonable for either side to shut
down the game for any length of time.

Bettman, as expected, guarded any CBA discussion in his Stanley
Cup news conference at the Prudential Center, but he openly scoffed
at the widely-held belief that another work-stoppage
– with American Thanksgiving as a resumption deadline –
is in the cards.

“I don’t understand both the speculation and the
degree of negativity,” he said. “If somebody is
suggesting [the probability of a lockout], it’s either
because there’s something in the [drinking] water; people
still have the NBA and NFL [labor issues] on the brain, or
they’re just looking for news on a slow day.”

Slow day; fast day, or no day at all, this is not the tone of
response Bettman would have issued in late-May 2004… not
with Bob Goodenow as Executive Director of the NHLPA and not
without the salary cap promised to expansion teams in the
late’90s and early-2000s.

When Calgary and Tampa Bay squared off for the Stanley Cup
– and even more-so during the World Cup tournament three
months later – an air of hopelessness pervaded the 2004-05
NHL season.

Everyone braced for a lengthy work stoppage and tacitly
understood that Bettman and the owners would keep arena doors
closed until the players – and Goodenow, in particular
– were brought to their knees.

Whether or not the lockout that obliterated the 2004-05 schedule
and playoffs proved beneficial is a matter of opinion, but the
owners did not hesitate in granting Bettman an extension when his
contract next came up for renewal.

Goodenow, who Bettman despised -- professionally and personally
-- was eliminated from the process, though not before years of
unyielding, intractable and highly-proficientwork on behalf of
the players.

Such adjectives have long applied to Goodenow’s successor,
Donald Fehr, formerly head of the Major League Baseball Players
Association, yet a man that Bettman seems to at least respect;
perhaps even admire.

That’s why a number of hockey observers anticipate some
bumpy negotiations, but a resolution that will allow for a full
slate of games next season.

Beyond the many logical reasons to keep business open, the
appetite to “conquer and destroy” isn’t nearly
what it was in 2004.

In that absence – and with the game moving forward in
revenues, salaries, sponsorship and TV numbers
-- the prevailing environment is more amenable to
productive bargaining.

As it pertains to the laudable, though pie-in-the-sky notion of
30 profitable teams, the league is savvy enough not to negotiate on
that basis.

Of the four major professional sports in North America, only the
NFL is in the black across the board – primarily because of
betting and unparalleled TV revenue. Baseball and basketball
generate more TV income than hockey south of the border but all
three sports possess money-losing franchises.

The NHL could have profitable teams from top to bottom…
if it were able to roll back salaries to 1980. That isn’t
going to happen, even in a most lop-sided CBA
“victory.”

So, attaining common ground with the players
is far-more sensible.

On the opposing side, players have clearly indicated an aversion
toward losing months of their short careers to labor unrest –
and rightly so.

The staggering odds of making it to the NHL are superseded only
by those of remaining in the league for more than three years.

Lavishly compensated even in labor “defeat,” our NHL
heroes have a very limited appetite for remaining idle past
mid-September.

Reasons to do so are even in shorter supply.

That’s why I stand firmly in belief that the puck will
drop on time in 2012-13.

TOM MURRAY REPORTS – LOMBARDI HAS KINGS ON VERGE
OF STANLEY CUP

Kings GM Dean Lombardi (Getty
Images)

What the Kings have accomplished so far -- both away and
home -- has strained
credulity. â€‹Our national
columnist Tom Murray views the LA success story from the source,
Dean Lombardi.

No matter what happens in Monday night’s Game three
of the Stanley Cup final, the Kings will have a lead in the series
against the Devils, another home game on Wednesday and an
opportunity to either clinch the first Cup in the history of the
franchise, or put a stranglehold on the series.

So it’s hard to believe that barely 18 months ago, in
early 2011, Kings GM Dean Lombardi (Ludlow, Mass.)
was on the hot seat.

Oh, sure, the previous spring the Kings had taken a significant
step in their fourth year under Lombardi, making the playoffs for
the first time in six seasons before bowing out to the Vancouver
Canucks in the first round.

But the message from Kings’ management to the GM
was crystal clear for the 2011 post-season:

“The pressure is on,” said Luc Robitaille, the
Kings’ president of business operations.

“Last year we set the tone. The goal was to make the
playoffs. It’s never been our goal this year to just make the
playoffs. Definitely this year, we need to get another step ahead.
To go out in the first round this year would be considered a
failure.”

And of course, that’s exactly what happened: The Kings
lost their first-round series in six games to the San Jose Sharks
and the conjecture and speculation began anew: What was the Kings
real identity?

Were they a true Stanley Cup contender, or a middling
we-are-who-we-are group, capable of teasing and tantalizing its
fans but never actually capable of winning a championship?

And skeptics around the NHL weighed in with the same criticism
that was leveled at Lombardi toward the end of his stint as
g.m. in San Jose: He gets too attached to his players,
particularly the younger ones he proudly refers to as his
“core,” and he is simply reluctant to make trades,
agonizing over them for so long that other managers in the league
grow impatient and lose interest.

Lombardi, cheerfully thick-skinned and defiant on that day he
was interviewed in his El Segundo office, defended his
commitment to the group he called his
“kids” -- Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Jack
Johnson and Dustin Brown, who along with goaltender Jonathan Quick,
were the cornerstones of the franchise.

“We’re way younger than what I had in San Jose at
this stage,” he said, “and this group is better than I
had in San Jose -- not even close. The potential core here is
way better.”

And then he went a step further, saying the Chicago Blackhawks
won their championship in 2010 with a roster full of the same kind
of kids, all of whom were drafted and developed by the
organization.

“It took ’em eight years to rebuild and win their
Cup,” he said with a confident smile. “We’re
ahead of schedule.”

And here we are.

Brown is the captain, the heart and soul leader of the team, a
player whose timely goals and indefatigable style set the pace for
the Kings from their very first post-season game.

Johnson is gone, but in return Lombardi acquired Jeff Carter,
whose overtime goal won Game Two last Saturday night and who
along with his old Flyers pal Mike Richards and Dustin Penner form
one of four formidable lines for the Kings.

Oh, and there’s one final footnote to this Cinderella
hockey story:

Back in the summer of 2010, Lombardi jumped feet first into the
sweepstakes for sniper Ilya Kovalchuk, then the prize catch on the
free-agent market.

Kovalchuk, who at the time had scored 50 or more goals twice in
his career, ultimately turned down the Kings’ offer, opting
to stay with the Devils for a multiyear deal in the range of $100
million.

A Kings executive revealed that Kovalchuk had two very good
choices, but New Jersey offered more money. The Kings offered as
much as they could while leaving themselves room to lock up their
younger core players, Lombardi’s “kids.” It was
as simple as that.

In his two seasons since, Kovalchuk hasn’t come close to
the 50-goal threshold, scoring 31 goals in 2010-11, 37 this past
season. â€‹And irony of ironies, now
he’s taking major heat for what many perceive as an
uninspired if not downright lackadaisical performance in this final
against his former suitors.

Which brings up yet another prescient thought from Lombardi in
that interview in early 2011, when he was pressed about whether the
Kings needed to make some sort of a statement to their fans by
acquiring a star player for the team.

“When are we going to learn that there’s a
difference between a great player or a star, and a winner?”
Lombardi said. “People want to
win — they’re not just going to want to watch
a great player. They’re going to get tired of him in a
hurry.”

“If I get a star,” he said, “I want one that
wins, and I want one that fits in the room with those
kids.”

The Devils got their star. Lombardi stuck with his kids.

You could argue that as a result, he now has a room full of
stars, who are on the brink of accomplishing something
that not so very long ago seemed unimaginable.

GOSSIP

Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (Getty
Images)

The Coyotes future should be
determined now that the Glendale politicos
are examining prospective owner Greg
Jamison's offer and the building management
situation. Plus, as Commissioner Gary
Bettman noted last week, Jamison continues to put his
equity together. A favorable vote on the management situation
should enable Jamison to finalize his equity raise. These factors
could be concluded by the end of the month. But, as the Commish has
stated, "The process should conclude successfully, but it's not
something I'm in a position to guarantee." ...

And speaking of "guarantees," without Tim
Thomas, the Bruins cannot even
come close to assuring fans in
Beantown that Boston will have a
Cup contender next season. Tuukka
Rask is not the answer and the B's
brass knows that only too well. ...

Easily the best line in print about the Bruins' gamble
on Rask's ability to become a number one goaltender comes
from the Boston Globe's Kevin Paul Dupont: "We
only have to look as far back as Andrew
Raycroft to see that glimpses of promise don't always
deliver full proof!" …

It will be interesting to hear what comes of the anticipated
Bettman-Wayne Gretzky meeting in Los
Angeles. The Commissioner said he's "hoping" to see The
Great One. "Wayne and I communicate on a regular basis," the
Commish told the media at their scrum in Newark. When a reporter
suggested a "marriage between the NHL and Gretzky," Bettman put it
this way: "When Wayne is more desirous, more comfortable being
more involved, I think that's great. Whatever he wants to do, I'm
completely supportive of. The closer he is to The Game, the more I
like it." …

The Los Angeles Kings and Fox Sports
have reached an agreement on a new TV contract, where
Kings games will be broadcasted on Fox Sports West through the
2024 season. The deal is extremely lucrative for
the Kings, who will receive an estimated $21 million per
season, which ranks alongside some of the best TV contracts for any
NHL team and local television market. Steve
Simpson, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Fox
Sports West, toldBill Shaikin of
the Los AngelesTimes that, "We're
excited to showcase their success on our network. We're committed
to the sports business in Los Angeles." …

Trade rumors are abound regarding
the Vancouver Canucks and
goaltender Roberto Luongo. From Tony
Gallagher of the VancouverProvince,
GM Mike Gillis had this to say about
recent reports on the subject: “I haven’t
contacted anyone with respect to Roberto at all. I’ve
had people call me and ask about him and I’ve told them that
we haven’t made any decisions at all about the future of our
goaltending. And that’s absolutely the truth.”
…

NashvillePredators GM David
Poile traveled to impending unrestricted free
agent Ryan Suter’s home
in Wisconsin to meet with the star defenseman Thursday, Poile
told The Tennessean. Suter has been linked
to several teams since Nashville was ousted
by Phoenix in this year’s
playoffs, and it’s the Red
Wings who are now generating a ton of buzz with the
opening they have on defense following the loss
of Nicklas Lidstrom.